Running To Win

Dave McCallister: Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and proctor of our faith. I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. No ambiguity there. It's clear that God will not tolerate the worship of images. But do crosses, crucifixes or icons violate God's commandment? To find out, stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is running to win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line.

Dave McCallister: Pastor Lutzer, many people wear necklaces with crosses as a witness to their Christian faith. Is this practice a sin?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Dave, I've mentioned this to you before, but one of the things I love about your questions is that you don't back away from some very interesting questions and sometimes some very difficult questions. But an answer to this question that you've just asked, I would say this. As long as it is not venerated, as long as it is not seen as some object that has religious powers, then I think it's okay. I'm talking about Christians who wear crosses around their neck. And many times I think it's a great symbol because they want people to know that they are Christians.

But those crosses have no special power. But when you begin to venerate objects and when you begin to bow down before objects and when you begin to believe that these objects somehow will give you a blessing, that I believe violates the second commandment. I want you to listen carefully today to this message and at the end of this message, I'm going to be giving you an opportunity to join us as we continue to get the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world and I'm going to share with you a marvelous testimony of a Muslim struggling with his faith and coming to faith in Jesus Christ.

You stay tuned. Now I told you that I was prepared to get some shrapnel today, so we'll just keep moving ahead through the mine field. Back in 1968, I spent 10 days in Rome and when I was in Rome, I'll you'd be surprised as to what my two eyes have seen in my short life. Uh for example, I saw the chains that were used for Peter and John when they were placed in prison. The chains were there in Rome under a glass case. I saw a part of a garment that was worn by Jesus Christ.

I saw actually in 1968 because we were part of an archaeological group. We had a a dig, that is an archaeological dig in the bottom of the Vatican. We put on our old clothes and we were taken to the various tunnels in the Vatican two hour lecture to those of us who were involved in archaeology regarding the finding of the bones of Saint Peter. They were found that summer by the way and I saw them with my own two eyes in little white cubicles. Uh you saw for example uh pieces of the true cross found in many many of the churches at Rome.

And all the way through the city, you see people bowing down before these things. I saw people line up hundreds of them, many of them American tourists with cameras slung over their shoulders standing in line to kiss statues that exist there in the city of Rome. Now I know what you're saying. You're saying pastor give us a break, okay? Give us a break. Since Vatican II, people don't believe these superstitions anymore. People don't do that kind of thing. We are enlightened. You are not understanding the tremendous changes that have taken place in the last years.

Well, I want to say this. First of all, it is not true that people no longer believe in these things because you can see that in Rome. We were back three years after that and saw the very same thing and a number of years ago, I was in the shrine of the Guadalupe in Mexico. And there were young women going on their knees on concrete for perhaps a quarter of a mile at least with little babies in their arms, knees bleeding as they on their knees slowly over a period of hours made their way to the shrine of the Virgin, the shrine of the Guadalupe there in Mexico.

All the while somehow believing that intrinsically there is something that that shrine represents that enables them to get to the true God. The text of scripture says thou shalt not bow down to them. Thou shalt not serve them. But you see in the minds of many people today, that is still happening. The attachment that people have to certain images and certain icons by which they think that God's blessing will be received and that God is approachable. There is distorted concepts of God. Secondly, distorted allegiance where people begin to become associated with various artifacts that they think are important and believe that through this means the blessing of God comes about.

There's a third reason and that is distorted worship itself. Now for this, we have to go back to Exodus chapter 20, the passage that gives us the commandment and I'm going to read again the verse five. It says you shall not worship them or serve them for I the Lord your God am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. This is a passage of scripture I'm so often asked about.

But I want to make certain observations regarding it. First of all, notice that it says that God judges those who hate him. And who is he talking about? Those who hate me. He's talking about idolaters. Do you see how idolatry gets people confused in their minds because they think they love God? They think that they are doing this to serve God, but the text says that God judges those who hate him and he is speaking about idolatry. If there's anything that God hates, I mean you look at the sins of the Old Testament and you find out that the Israelites committed every sin known to man, but the one sin that God judged them for the most severely, the one he hated the most was idolatry, bowing before images, somehow trying to represent God or thinking that God can be localized in some way because of some representation.

And so it says that those who do these things actually hate God. That's his interpretation. Now what about this though? I am a jealous God and I visit the iniquity of the fathers, the text says, on the children to the third and the fourth generation. Listen to me very carefully, you fathers. Did you know that you represent God to your family? The earliest conception that your children will have of God is is derived from you, directly from you. That's why fathers pack such a tremendous amount of power in their families. I can imagine there's some woman who are here who's saying, oh not my husband.

He doesn't have anything to do with God or church. My friend, let me say it again. Your earliest conceptions of God are derived from your father and that's true of your children even if they have an absentee father, a rebellious father, a godless father, an atheistic father, a a sinful father who is involved in various adulterous relationships. The father image in the life of a child is overwhelmingly powerful, absolutely determinative oftentimes in the life of a child. Now that 's why it says that God visits the iniquity of the father upon the children to the third and the fourth generation.

It's because the children pick up the father image. And if they see father bowing to idols, if they see father involved in idolatrous worship, that image is carried with children. They are almost imprinted with it. And it's a very difficult thing to get rid of. Now having said that, let me say that of course there are exceptions. I mean I don't think that this means for example that God visits the iniquity of the fathers on every single one of the children. Uh there may be several children in a family and only one has that imprint that is so erasable that the child feels the effects of his father's idolatry.

But God is saying that the sin of idolatry is usually communicated from generations to generations. And that's why it's so desperately important that we be free of it. Now even in the Bible, I might say that there are exceptions to this rule. For example, the text says that Ahaz was an idolater. He has Hezekiah who was one of his sons. Hezekiah is the man that we referred to who was getting rid of all the idols. And then of course Hezekiah though has a son by the name of Manasseh. Manasseh was the most wicked king, the Bible says that ever lived.

He ruled in Jerusalem for 40 years and he went back and he reestablished all the shrines that his father had torn down. And you can see here the imprint and the impact of a father upon his children. And so what the Lord is saying here is he says I am so jealous. I want absolutely no representations. I don't want you to bow down before any images. I don't want you to make anything to represent me. You're to worship me in spirit and in truth and if not, I will judge future generations and if you think that God is unusually harsh, notice verse six, but I show loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments.

And so even in wrath, God remembers mercy. Want to emphasize again of course that if you're from a family which you are taught wrongly, you don't have to say that you were victimized by your circumstances and your heritage. God is able to deliver you from it, but I want you to notice that the the deliverance oftentimes is very difficult, very difficult because it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 that pagans who offer sacrifices to idols do not do so to God as they claim, but they do it to demons. That's what it says in 1 Corinthians 10 and oftentimes therefore because Satan is very concerned that God not receive a pure worship, sometimes he uses idols as stumbling blocks in people's lives.

But of course, God is in the business of delivering his people from their sins. Now what I've said to you today is that any artifact, any physical representation of God causes first of all distortion in our concepts of God because it's very incomplete, distortion in our allegiance because people began to gravitate towards the object as a focus of their attention. It also distorts our worship of God. But I want to make a secondary application of this passage of scripture. Its primary emphasis has to do with physical representations of God, idolatry, but I think that there's another way that it can be applied in which it applies to every single one of us in a more special way.

If we have within our minds concepts of God that are wrong, that too can become idolatry. Because if we have concepts of God that demean him or that are unworthy of him or that are wrong concepts of God in a sense we can set up a little idol in our mind even if we do not bow before a statue. And that's why I think it's so important for us to realize this is that when you begin to think about God in your own way, you tend to fashion him according to your image. I've asked you to turn to many passages today, but let me ask you to turn to one more.

Psalm 50, very interesting Psalm. It's talking about idolaters here. Actually not idolaters. Idolaters of the mind, not physical idolaters. And God says in verse 16 of Psalm 50, it says but to the wicked God says what right have you to tell of my statues and to take my covenant in your mouth? For you hate discipline and you cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you are pleased with him and you associate with adulterers. You let your mouth loose in evil and your tongue frames deceit. You sit and speak against your brother and you slander your own mother's son.

Verse 21. These things you have done and I kept silence. God doesn't judge sin sometimes immediately, but he does judge it. But now notice this. Because God was silent, you thought that I was just like you. Well, isn't that interesting? These people here, they put up with all kinds of sins and because God wasn't slapping their wrists immediately, they thought that God was winking at sin just like they were winking at sin. God says you thought I was like you. And ever since that time, man has always thought about fashioning God after his own image, after his own likeness, after the kind of God that we want.

So someone who is living perhaps immorally or someone living with all kinds of deceit in his business says to himself surely God is allowing me to get by with this. God must approve of cutting corners. He isn't the harsh God that Pastor Lutzer sometimes talks about him as being. He's actually a very lenient God. So a person like that may say well, you know my God. Oh I I just am so amused when I hear this. They'll say my God would never judge anyone and allow him to go to hell. Oh do you get it?

You know God and I have got this thing going and my God. And that's probably true. His God wouldn't. But he doesn't have the right God in his mind. Whenever I travel on the plane, almost always, not always, but almost always I like to witness to the person next to me about Christ and I get this so often that it's just remarkable. People will say things like this to me. Well, I believe first of all that God will never allow anyone to go to hell. That's what they'll say. And then they 'll say you know I think that all the religions of the world are right and it really doesn't matter so much what you believe as long as you're sincere.

Now when anybody says that to me, I have a routine I go through. I always I try to almost drop whatever it is that I am reading. I mean I'll let it fall on the floor. And I'll say to that person as I look him in the eye, you know what you've said is just incredible. Absolutely incredible. Do you realize that you are saying things that are so important that the entire world ought to hear them? In fact, it's almost a sin that I should enjoy these conversations so much, but I once even said to a person you know I'm an author.

I write books. I said if you're right, we have to get this message out. I'll write it up. We'll publish it. We'll send it throughout the United States so people know that there is no hell and that all the religions of the world are right because because that's that is dynamite. I mean that's dynamite. But then I say to him but I have only two questions that I have to ask you. The first question is how do you know this? Have you received it as a revelation from God? I assume you have because only God would know as to whether or not there's a hell and whether or not he sends people there and whether or not all the religions of the world are right.

I mean obviously you are privy to knowledge that is not accessible to the average human being. So tell me first of all, please is this a revelation from God that you've received? Has he told you this? And secondly, if he has, can you prove to me that indeed it was God who showed this to you? Well, you know at that point the guy's saying oh why doesn't this guy go outside and take a walk? You see what he's done is he's set up a conception of God in his own mind and he has bowed before and says my God doesn't allow people to go to hell.

My God isn't harsh. My God allows all the people in the world to go to heaven. My God, my God. Well, where is he getting this information from? It's idolatry and sinful and God says I hate idolatry. For you to think that I'm like unto you, you think that I was just like you. You thought because you wouldn't allow anyone to go to hell because you would allow all the religions of the world to be right. You have made me into your image. And that too is idolatry. I want to read in closing a poem, but not a poem, it's a prayer by Tozer.

A. W. Tozer said these words. Oh Lord God Almighty, not the God of the philosophers and the wise, but the God of the prophets and the apostles and better than all, the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They that know thee not may call upon thee as other than thou art. And so worship not thee, but a creation of their own fancy. Therefore enlighten our minds that we may know thee as thou art so we may perfectly love thee and worthily praise thee. You say well, what about that guy on the plane? Do you have a special revelation from God?

He usually says to me no, no, no special revelation from God at all. Well, then how do you know that God sends people to hell? How do you know that all the religions aren't right? It's because there is a person who had a special revelation from God and had the credentials to prove it, who spoke with unquestioned authority about these matters and his name was Jesus Christ and this is what he said about eternity, heaven and hell and the way to heaven. That's the answer. Anything less than receiving that revelation from God, anything less than understanding that we must be submissive to what God has said, anything less than that is idolatry and rebellion.

Whether we bow before a statue or not. Shall we pray? Oh father, we ask that in these moments that you might purify our minds so that we might have a right conception of you. We pray that we might be willing to worship you in spirit and in truth and ask the Lord that you shall give us the freedom to do so with confidence because we come in the name of Jesus. And we come through the prescribed way of his sacrifice for us on the cross. And there may be those who are here today who have never received you as savior, people with wrong conceptions of God.

They have made him into their own image. Oh we ask that you will enable them to receive in faith today Christ, to acknowledge their need, to depend upon him and that they might believe you and you alone. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Well, this is Pastor Lutzer. I want to share something very exciting with you and let you know that your involvement in this ministry enables us to hear wonderful testimonies of God's saving grace. I'm holding in my hands a letter from someone who listens to running to win in Arabic. This is what he wrote. I was regularly listening to your program in Arabic because I wanted to know about Jesus. I hadn't usually talked about this especially with Muslims, but I couldn't deny my hunger anymore. And then the letter goes on to say I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart.

I'm now reading the gospel of Matthew and growing in my faith. I hope to be baptized someday. Thank you for leading me to Christ's love and salvation. You, my friend, have had a part in that testimony. Would you consider becoming what we call an endurance partner? That's someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. Would you at least investigate the possibility? Here's what you do and I hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. You can go to rtwoffer.com. That's rtwoffer.com and when you're there, you click on the endurance partner button.

Or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337. Yes, because of people just like you, running to win is heard in Arabic. Right now go to rtwoffer.com or you can pick up the phone and call us at 1 888 218 9337. As I frequently remind people, if you've been blessed because of this ministry, which by the way goes to 50 different countries in seven different languages, if you've been blessed, it's because other people just like you are partnering with us. Thanks in advance for your prayers. Thanks in advance for your gifts as together we are making a difference.

Dave McCallister: Time now for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question about the Bible or the Christian life. Another running to win listener is trying to keep Pastor Lutzer on the theological straight and narrow. Joy contacted us to ask the other day you talked about God being at his best. Since God is ultimate and almighty, how can he have a best moment?

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Joy, that's an excellent question and I need to tell you that that phrase God at his best, I actually borrowed that phrase from the famous African American preacher E. V. Hill who talked about God being at his best. And in my mind and heart when I used the expression, I was really putting it in quotation marks because obviously I agree with you. God is always at his best. I think the way in which I meant it is likely the way in which E. V. Hill meant it, namely that there are times when we see God manifesting himself in a very wonderful way.

And certainly we see that at the cross. Certainly we see that when God redeems us. So although God is always at his best, there are times when we see him more clearly. There are times when he intervenes and we are so certain of that intervention for us from our standpoint. We say that that was God at his best. But of course you're right. God is always at his very best.

Dave McCallister: Some wise counsel from Dr. Erwin Lutzer who today was at his best. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on ask Pastor Lutzer. Or call us at 1 888 218 9337. That's 1 888 218 9337. You can write to us at running to win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 60614. We know that the name of God is holy and is not to be misused by swearing, cursing or improper oath taking. Next time on running to win, why keeping his name set apart was so important to God that he wrote a command about it with his finger on a tablet of stone.

Plan to join us as we hear a message on the third commandment, the misuse of God's name. Thanks for listening. This is Dave McCallister. Running to win is sponsored by the Moody Church.